Astro2110 – The Solar System

Galileo Galilei was born February 15th, 1564 and died on November 15th, 1630. He was an Italian astronomer and made great strides in his field.

Galileo made great strides in astronomy, one of them being the creation of his telescope. This telescope was the best of its time, measuring up to 30x magnification. Galileo also discovered Jupiter’s largest moons after seeing how they revolved around the planet night after night. Furthermore, he studied Venus and its phases which eventually gave further proof that we live in a heliocentric solar system. Source

A historical event that happened in Galileo’s lifetime was the passage of the ship The Mayflower in 1620. This ship was the first ship to transport the English Puritans to the New World. Source Also, in 1576, the Globe Theater was built. This was the first built playhouse in England where many famous Shakespearian plays were performed.  Source 

Shakespeare was an important historical figure in Galileo’s lifetime. He was baptized on April 26^th, 1564 and died on April 23^rd 1616. Shakespeare was a famous playwright whose works include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth. Source 

From this reflection, I realized that my timing of history was very off. I always thought that Galileo was alive well before Shakespeare, not them living at the same time. Also, most of the astronomers lived a lot longer than I would have guessed. Most made it to their 70s which is very surprising for people who lived 400 years ago.

Question 2

I chose Galileo Galilei (February 15, 1564 – January 8, 1642).

Galileo Galilei’s contributions to Astronomy were primarily observational. From what we know about his very own scientific method, however, we understand how important those observations really were. It’d be very easy to simply dismiss someone who simply took existing technology and just pointed it up at the night sky. What’s more important is to realize that he was intellectually curious enough to do so, and then made detailed accounts and drawings that, paired with his skills in reasoning and logic, disproved his predecessors. Case in point, the moons of Jupiter and his understanding that they must be orbiting Jupiter. Not only were his processes revolutionary, but the accuracy with which he did them are hailed to be astounding by many.

Question 3a

Plenty of historical events took place throughout Galileo’s lifetime. For instance, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII implemented the Gregorian Calendar, the very one we use today! And in 1588 the Spanish Armada was defeated. Basically, it was a Spanish fleet that was intended to attack England but failed. Miserably. If anyone’s interested, there was a paper on what would have happened had the Armada actually landed.

Question 3b

William Shakespeare – (April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616). Our beloved western playwright, he brought timeless classics that still disrupt highschoolers’ attempts at procrastination, only to fail due to Sparknotes. If anyone’s interested in a good read though, MIT has a complete list of his works with links to the actual plays themselves. Plus, it’s free!

Question 4

For me, Galileo’s influence on the world of science is something I’ve been taught over and over ever since middle school. From little factoids to drilling in the scientific method, I always considered him less of a scientist and more of a lucky guy who happened to make good decisions and notice a few things. He reported scientific facts – he wasn’t a scientist. That changed over time, and gradually I began to see why he was so beloved.
As a neuroscience major, every class from Intro Neuro to upper and graduate level courses start out the first lecture with Golgi and Cajal who shared the Nobel prize. The former invented the stain, but the latter used it to produce beautiful drawings of neural structures (also, the neuron doctrine beat out reticular theory but hey who’s counting). It’s the same relationship as Galileo and the telescope. You could say the inventor of the device should get the credit, but you also have to consider the one who used it to its best potential and laid out a foundation for further scientific investigation.

2. Galileo (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was a hero of astronomy. Knowing that the Catholic Church did not uphold the views of Copernicus, he still pursued what he believed to be wholly factual science. After the Copernican revolution was rejected on the grounds that Aristotelianism was the product of the Divine, Galileo challenged those claims by providing observable evidence supporting heliocentrism. For this, he is named the father of observable astronomy and hailed as a champion of science. Interestingly, even with this conflict with The Church he still practiced Christianity devoutly.

3.a       1613- House Romanov was established in Russia. This was the ruling class that lead Russia through a tough history of comparatively lacking industry and development and out of the Times of Trouble; however, this primed them for a revolution after its collapse in 1917.

1600- The East India Trading Company was given a royal charter by Queen Elizabeth I. This trading super power dominated both militarily and economically over the Indian subcontinent especially over their French and Portuguese competition.

3.b       René Descartes– 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650. This mathematician and philosopher was considered to be highly contentious and radical. Proclaiming that he would write and think as if no one had ever considered what he was studying. He is famous critically analyzing the way that mankind thought and departed chiefly from the authority of The Church on the premise that absolute certainty stems from mankind and not God assuming that mankind is totally autonomous.

4. It is fascinating to link the ideologies of Descartes and Galileo. Both believed in a particular flavor of truth that the Catholic Church was not willing to depart from. This methodology also manifested the need for practical evidence that could be repeatedly observed and verified. Logical deduction and then experimentation was the basis for every scientific pursuit that these two pioneers of thought investigated.